Rolemaster Invades Heman
by Avetre Maevrin
Summary: AU or crossover if you like. What would happen if Eternia was suddenly invaded by 4 very odd and somewhat crazy elves? What sort of practical havoc and mayhem could they cause with their whack it till it's dead then call the necromancer mentality? Can o
1. Chapter 1

**Rolemaster Invades He-man**

_Disclaimer: I own nothing, maybe 5 cents...wait no, oh, wow, I own 10 cents. Anyway, I don't own He-man, and I only wish I owned Rolemaster. Rolemaster is one of the most all-time awesome pen and paper rpgs one could ever play. It's based on MERPS._

_Prologue:_

"You are going to behave yourselves aren't you?" You know it's going to be an interesting story when these are the first words spoken. "Yes Mommy, we'll behave marvelously." The hyperactive little chipmunk of an elf grinned. "Do you want I should hold your hand whilst we go through town?" The taller blonde haired elf growled at said chipmunk.

"Maevrin, you are in and of yourself a one-woman demolition team."

"Maelynn, the same could be said for you, or have you forgotten 'low world orbit?'"

The other two women were watching this with bemused expressions. Maevrin was a five foot menace, Maelynn was six foot and a majestic mage. It was obvious who was getting whose goat. Maeve always won in these little annoyance games. She was the queen of annoyance, we have yet to decide if this was a good thing or bad thing. The brown haired elf in a reinforced trench coat smirked, "How long to you think this bout's going to take, Wooky?"

"I don't know, maybe another five minutes, Gwen. Maeve's been getting good at the button pushing. She's probably going to get drenched this time."

"I'll wager it's more like...now." Mae's face started to go red. One could almost see the steam rolling from her ears. She glowered at the smug runt before snapping her fingers. Maeve vanished, only to reappear ten feet above the water off the port side bow. Giving an indignant squawk she plunged into the water.

"Well, I'd say both of us were right. When are we supposed to arrive in port? I really need some new lute stings." Gwen groaned. Wooky grinned. The past few songs played on said lute had been mangled beyond recognition and Gwen had not been happy. Her strings had started to fray and unravel shortly into the voyage to leave their war far, far behind them. Maelynn was making a stop at the nearest port, the capital of a country named Eternia.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter I_:

"Hey, Hey! Look at that!" Maeve cried excitedly bouncing in place before running of into the crowd of tall, muscle bound humans. Maelynn gave a cry of despair before darting off after her. Wooky's sister, Gwen and Galdier (Gwen's hubby) were busy bartering for supplies and brow-beating the idiotic humans who dared try to over charge them, so Wooky, Mae, and Maeve were wandering town and killing time. Bob was following his master and constantly being reminded that the other moving animals were not food. Apparently the humans in this town were used to beast masters because no one looked twice at the leopard following a young lady. Namely, Mae and Wooky were chasing Maeve around when she ran off to look at new things. Wooky was busy trying to keep from laughing, generally because she was interested in what all Maeve was looking at, namely weapons and herbs/poisons.

When Mae and Wooky finally saw Maeve's cloak it was disappearing over a wall. Mae stopped and gaped, "Please tell me you didn't just see what I just saw..."

Wooky grinned, "If you just saw Maevrin's cloak disappearing over that wall...then sorry, can't do that. Wouldn't want to lie to a friend now would I?"

Maelynn groaned and started towards the wall muttering under her breath as she went. "Sooner or later I'm going to leave that twerp to get out of these messes on her own." Soon she had vanished from sight via invisibility spell and used her leaving spell to get to the top of the wall. Wooky grinned, told Bob to find his way to her, and then ran up, after making certain that no one was watching.

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Maevrin had seldom seen such exquisite weaponry. Oh, she had to get Wooky and show her the lovely sharp pointy objects. Wooky would drool. Speaking of Wooky, she and Mae should have arrived to yell at her by now. She turned and felt her eyes pop out of their sockets by what she was seeing. Wooky was running up a wall. Not just any wall either, no, Wooky was running up the palace wall. Maeve puzzled over this for a moment before deciding, that there was no way she was going to let Wooky and like as not Mae have fun without her.

She slid out of the shop and sauntered along the wall, leaning against it she watched the people coming and going from the palace. Seeing an opening she wandered over and slipped into the middle of a group of comers, vanishing in the crowd. Once she judged she was far enough away from the guards she slipped away from the group she'd attached herself to. No one had noticed the arrival or the departure of the small elf. After detaching herself from the group Maeve hurried to where Wooky had gone over the wall, muttering under her breath all the while, "Why, oh why did they have to do this? Especially without me, here I thought I was the only one crazy enough to invade a castle... Now, I've got to find them..." Reaching the wall she considered the area around her and decided to use her super secret chant of finding to, well find them. That being decided she narrowed down her options by figuring out which way an assassin would go. Once she'd thought of that she decided that they wouldn't have the know-how to take that route, leaving two other options. She nodded and started chanting "Eeny, meeny, miney, mo..."

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Wooky crept along the wall, peeking around the corner she watched as the tail of Maeve's cloak disappearing down another hall. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard Mae, still invisible, started muttering the ways in which she would kill their tiny friend. Wooky shook her head, Maelynn was spending entirely too much time around Maevrin, the thought was reinforced by Maelynn's contemplation of using one of those odd pink ornamentations they'd seen in the palace gardens. What were they called again...a flaming-coat...flaming-cot...oh, yes, a flaming-go. Why use the word flaming unless something was on fire was beyond her, maybe her sister could give her a reason. She brought herself out of this train of thought and rushed after the midget they were following.

After much sneaking they found Maevrin sliding up behind some blonde haired boy wearing a red vest over a white shirt and blue slacks. The boy was speaking with a man wearing some odd armour and...was that furry underwear. Wooky blinked, what was it with furry underwear? Maelynn interrupted her justified shock by hissing, "What in the bloody-blue-blazes does that girl think she's doing?" Wooky jerked her head around to see Maevrin pulling out a dagger as she got closer to the man. Mae shook her head and snapped softly.

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Adam turned. He'd heard a snapping sound.

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"Maevrin was right, you have no concept of stealth do you?" Wooky hissed, pressing her body back against the wall.

A contrite sounding voice muttered "Sorry."

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Adam and Man-at-Arms were staring at the rather short figure that was down the hallway. "Whoever she is, she must need some help." Adam stated, walking towards the person.

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Maelynn watched the blonde boy start walking towards his assassin and started shaking her head. "Some people need to learn to be paranoid. Oh, well, I needed some juggling practice." She snapped again. And again someone ended up 100 feet away from where they previously were, this time it was someone blonde.

Wooky started giggling.

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Man-at-Arms blinked, he turned away from the distant figure and looked toward another distant figure. Adam stumbled and fell back. Looking around he saw Man-at-Arms was now a distant figure and the other distant figure was even more distant.

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Maevrin, for her part was hopelessly lost. She sighed, thinking back, maybe she should have gone the assassin's route, who knows, and they might have decided to kill the king or someone like that.

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Maelynn was having a smashing time. Juggling people was so much fun. Every time either figure reached the middle figure, whose mind seemed to have been broken, just like that odd communitater (no, this is not a spelling error, this his how Mae thinks it's pronounced) something or other on his wrist. Every once in a while he would remove himself from the broken mind stupor and try to fix the thing. Obviously the man was a soldier and a guardsman to boot; he had more than a few choice words.

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Duncan, aka Man-at-Arms (getting bloody tired of writing MaA), was annoyed, first someone decides to move Adam 100 feet from where he was standing and then someone decided to move the woman 100 feet back when she managed to reach him, and now his blasted communicator was busted. Now, if this wasn't bad enough, the Sorceress decided to pay a visit to his mind and tell him there were three intruders in the palace, one of which was a rather...unique mage. The other two individuals, she had nothing on. Then to further the headache, there was an odd blank spot, a spot that could be someone or something, and that was typically not a good thing.

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Maevrin was sauntering down one of the hallways in the general direction of a possible assassin's route. She had placed a glamour over herself to make her look like a human maid. A short human maid, but human and a maid none the less. What annoyed her was the fact that a rather odd guardsman had decided to follow her, rather, the man's head and extendable neck had decided to follow her. She stomped down her irritation when she heard snapping. Narrowing her eyes she looked ahead and saw a person shaped figure pressed against the wall, in the shadows. 'Well, there they are, Mae must be snapping. Okay, that means get rid of this nuisance before he discovers them.' She stopped and turned to the head.

"Hello, ma'am."

"Hi," she murmured shyly, lowering her eyes and watching him through her lashes.

"I'm Mek-a-Neck, if I may say it's a pleasure to meet such a beautiful lady such as you. I don't believe I've seen you before, are you new here?"

Maeve, nodded, smiling sweetly, all the while plotting revenge on whoever had decided she needed to be beautiful, she believed his name was Andrevas. He would die, slowly, painfully, with squirrels. "Yes sir, I actually started work about two days ago," she shrugged, "I'm looking for the head housekeeper, and I'm in a bit of a hurry."

"Ah, yes, well, I suppose I'd better leave you to find her. If you have time, I'd like to talk with you later. Till then, goodbye." With that his head retreated along with his neck.

Maeve nodded and started walking back the way she'd been heading. Glancing back from time to time she found that he was no longer there. She grinned and ran, stealthily up to Wooky.

"So, who are you trying to kill?" she whispered to her friend.

Wooky didn't look away from Mae's juggling act, "It's actually more along the lines of who are we trying to stop you from killing."

"Why do you think I'm trying to kill someone?"

Wooky started to answer before blinking and jerking around to look at Maeve. "Maeve? I thought you were there... Oh, crap," hearing another snap she turned around, "Maelynn, here's Maeve."

"No, Maeve's down at the other end of the hall."

"No, Maeve's here." Maevrin growled, "What's going on?"

A shift of air told them that Mealynn had turned around. "Why did you go over the wall, Avetre Maevrin?"

Maeve flinched from her full name, "I didn't until I saw Wooky go over the wall. I followed you, and I didn't go over the wall, I walked in through the gate. What about you, why did you go over the wall?"

"We followed you over the wall."

"I was in a sword shop, I didn't go over the wall."

"Then who did we follow over the wall?"

"Dunno, maybe an assassin?" Maevrin muttered sarcastically.

"So what are we going to do?" Wooky asked worriedly. Maelynn turned around and snapped, sending the blonde haired man 100 feet back the way he came. The assassin in the cloak was starting to look exasperated. The blonde looked both exasperated and amused. The guardsman was steaming.

"We take down the assassin?" Maevrin suggested. They both looked at her, "That way, they don't think we're hiding anything...much." They nodded. Agreeing that was probably the best option. Maevrin canceled her glamour and walked out into the hall, after, of course, Maelynn had gone out to head off the assassin. The person closest to Maeve was the blonde who was marching towards the guardsman.

"Miss," he called to her, "You probably don't want to be here, people end up getting juggled in this hallway."

"Yes, well, about that, you see, the lady down at that end of the hall is an assassin. She's trying to kill you. My friends thought she was me and were trying to keep the two of you away from each other, you know, make certain you played nice and all that."

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Adam froze hearing those words. Duncan's eyes widened and he started making his way towards them. "How do I know you're not here to kill me?" Adam asked.

The small elf laughed, "If I was here to kill you, do you think I'd let myself be seen? Shoot, if I wanted you dead I would have just let that other one kill you. Nope, the only reason I'm here is because my friends are, they're here because they thought I was coming in to do something. Why they think I'd be out to kill you I'll never know. By the way, the security around the parameter bites. I was able to walk in through the front gates."

Adam tilted his head. He laughed, "You know for some reason, I believe you."

"I'm glad you do, I'd hate to think up a couple of lies to try to get you to believe. For once I'm telling the truth, my mother would be so ashamed of me." Maeve groaned.

"I'm glad you don't have to lie either. You can't tell a good lie to save your life." A rugged elf stated from her position in the middle hallway. Duncan, who was just passing the hall's entry swung around to face the unknown person. "I'm one of her friends that followed her doppelganger."

Adam nodded, "Why did you think that woman was her?"

The rugged elf snorted, "From what I've seen of your fair town, there are no short people. Maeve barely tops five feet. Plus the woman favors her from behind." Adam nodded, that made sense.

They all jerked around when they heard some one yell, "Four!" What they saw was the assassin vanish and roll across the floor, much like a ball, right into the Buzz-off, Ram Man, Stratos, and Mek-a-neck, who had somehow contrived to rush out of the middle adjoining hall at just that moment.

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The assassin for her part saw a woman walk out of the intersecting hallway and start to talk with the prince she'd been sent to kill. The woman gestured towards her and that was when she decided to leave. She swung around and ran into something that wasn't there. Falling to the ground she looked up and saw a very unhappy elf standing before her. The elf had a twitch in her eyebrow, raising her hand she growled, "Going somewhere?" before snapping her fingers and sending the assassin spinning, snapping again she yelled, "Four!" and the assassin discovered just who'd been juggling her around for the past hour.

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After seeing the clash of the assassin and the masters Adam turned back to Maeve and Duncan. Smirking, he stated, "There is only one thing to say in a situation like this..." Adam crowed, "Steeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiike!" At which point Wooky turned to look at Adam, raising her hand, she barely held back from smacking the boy. Duncan, however, didn't. Maevrin shook her head and pounced on the assassin, who was jumping to her feet and about to run. Maevrin swept the assassin's feet out from under her. Having done that she jabbed her opponent, dropping the assassin swiftly and effectively.

Wooky stared at the runt in shock, "When and where did you learn those moves? Why haven't we seen them before?"

Maevrin looked the ranger dead in the eye, "I've been privileged to training you haven't had and as such I've learned many things from it. Don't forget that I am older than you and I've had at least thirty more years of experience. Beyond that, you do not need to know." Maevrin then turned back to the assassin. She swiftly hog-tied and searched the pockets of her fallen foe and quickly started removing the woman's weaponry, which in turn formed a small pile near the feet of the masters who were wondering how such a small woman could conceal so many arms they also wondered why Maevrin was continuing the search.

"What are you doing?" asked a man just a little taller than Maeve. This man looked like a squat little barrel with an odd helmet on.

Maeve glanced at him, never taking her eyes fully off the fallen assassin, "Well Mr...um barrel man, I'm searching for weapons, obviously." Wooky nodded in agreement, she'd seen Maevrin do this before, it never made much sense to her, but whatever kept the runt happy.

"You've already done that though..."

Maeve nodded before grinning. She pulled the back of the woman's shirt up and started ripping the seams. As soon as the rips in the seams were big enough several thin, flexible needles made of bamboo started falling out, "And that, dear gentlemen, would be why I'm searching some more. In order to be dead certain she doesn't have anything else to make us dead I search an opponent that's being captured at least six times? Wooky searches at least three times. Why? Don't you do such things?"

"No ma'am, we never saw the reason to."

"That's dumb, paranoia should be enough of a reason to, the fact that you are quite obviously at war should be another." Maeve snorted.

Duncan started to go red with anger when the Sorceress' illusion appeared, "You do of course realize she's right. Tell me, how is that you've become so paranoid at such a young age?"

Wooky laughed, "Tell me, how old do you think we are?"

"You can't be more than twenty, maybe thirty..."

Maevrin shook her head and went back to work, she'd leave that one to Wooky. Wooky groaned, "Ma'am, I'm 120 years old, Maelynn is 130, Maevrin is actually the eldest at 150. She's been working for the...military from the age of...I don't know, how long have you been working for the military?" Wooky asked turning to Maeve.

Maevrin shrugged never turning from her task of disarming the now groggy assassin, "Long enough to know that mercy is a pretty word that has no place in war. It's for the stupid and the evil persons."

Duncan looked at her in shock, "Why in the world do you say that?"

Maevrin's eyes narrowed, "Have you ever seen a case where saving an opponent turns them around? No mercy is shown where none is given." With that disturbing revelation she stood, "The best way to make certain that an assassin is striped of all her weapons is to, well, strip her. After that have one of you medical professionals look for anymore weapons on her person."

"What do you mean by that?" Adam asked blushing slightly. At that Maeve walked up to him and tugged on his sleeve. He knelt and she started whispering an explanation of what she meant. Adam, for his part, started blushing like a cooked lobster, by the end of her explanation he was franticly looking around for anyone to save him from the rather plain spoken and apparently very vindictive woman. He suddenly looked aghast, "That shouldn't be possible!" he exclaimed. The remaining masters started to laugh, they could think of what she was telling him.

"Tough luck boy, it is." Maeve swung around and started walking off.

Sorceress' head turned and regarded the short elf, calmly, "You do have a point, Man-at-Arms, see that it is done." turning her head to Maelynn, after seeing Man-at-Arms instructing Mek-a-Neck, Buzz-Off and Ram Man to do as Maeve suggested. "You have proven to be a cunning mage. I hope to speak with you about your spells and offer you some instruction. Adam, if you would bring them to Castle Greyskull, I would be most appreciative."

"Sorceress, you can't seriously think of trusting these women without more proof than what they've told us!" Duncan gasped, askance, as he looked away from the retreating backs of the three masters and the assassin.

"You know, I actually agree with you," Wooky stated, "Maelynn, you can't seriously think of trusting that woman without any proof that she's not out to get us."

At which point Maevrin piped up, "You know, I don't think that's what the man meant. I do however agree with you. Maelynn, we have no proof that she isn't out to get us." Duncan was gaping at them. The Sorceress looked like she was trying to keep a straight face. Adam looked shell shocked.

"No one's ever doubted us before!"

"Then it's about time they started." Maevrin stated firmly.

Maelynn groaned, "You do realize that not everyone is as naturally paranoid as the two of you, right?"

Wooky grinned, "It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you." Stratos nodded, this made perfect sense to him.

"Listen Mae, if you really want to visit this floating disembodied head then we will accompany you, and kill her if she happens to be out to kill us. How does that sound?"

Wooky nodded, "Yes that works for me."

Maelynn stared at them, her jaw dropping, "You two obviously hold diplomacy in very low regard."

Wooky grinned, "The two of us have the political aptitude of particularly dense and unsociable rocks. We're quite happy that way. Barring that, the only diplomacy I really need is the bigger stick."

"Or the sharper weapon and the deadlier poison and a better hiding place to use." Maevrin stated calmly, nodding. Stratos, Duncan, and Adam started to look rather nervous at this point in time. Maevrin turned to the Sorceress' head, "Well, do we have any reason to trust you? As far as I see we don't, and you have no reason to trust us, so let's call it even and part ways."

"Now see here!" Duncan growled before the Sorceress could reply, "You don't really expect us to let you go after you made that little threat!" Adam started to say something but Stratos stepped in front of him.

"Lad, you're going to have to run. It's our job to protect you, we won't let them follow through with it." Stratos stated calmly but sternly. Adam slowly nodded, he looked apologetically at Maelynn who was busy looking pole-axed. Mae groaned, "This was just supposed to be a routine supply stop. Why can't anything sane happen to us. Oh, well, at least it isn't a dragon this time." As far as Stratos and Duncan were concerned there was little to fear from the blonde elvin mage, their main concern were the two loons with no political aptitude.

Wooky's eyes narrowed, she started to draw her...let us say illegitimate child sword, "We don't want to fight you. We want to be on our way, away from you. We stated, and I quote 'we'll kill her if she's out to kill us.' we didn't say 'let's march over there and kill the disembodied head!'"

"You made a death threat, we don't do that sort of stuff around here." Stratos stated, he shot towards Maeve, who had yet to draw her weapon.

Maeve's eyebrow arched before somehow producing a naginata. Using her naginata she pole-vaulted over Stratos and struck at him from behind, making his jet pack unusable. Stratos' momentum sent him flying into the wall. Maeve slid back into a defensive stance, looking for any weakness in her opponent using her chi. Stratos growled, jumping to his feet he rushed at the tiny elf, only to have her vault over his head again. The last thing he heard was a crunching sound as the blade of her hand struck his neck. The last thing he saw was Duncan's shocked expression as he rushed toward the wall.

Duncan charged to the rough looking ranger assuming that she was the greater danger and that Stratos could deal with the little girl. He was rather shocked to see Stratos go flying into the wall. Deciding to end the fight swiftly he shot his wrist lasers at the ranger. Wooky dodged the lights that were coming toward her from the gauntlets on the guardsman. She caught a glimpse of the charred places on the stone wall and yelled, "No fair using flashy beams!" She knocked one of his wrists aside and hit the other with the flat of her sword. The gauntlet deflected the majority of the impact but his wrist still ached after the impact. Duncan grabbed her and tried to take her down. Wooky responded by raising her knee sharply, prompting yelps of pain from both. Deciding to keep him from raising the alarm, Wooky cast a sound wall to prevent him from being heard or hearing outside of a one foot radius. Duncan twisted around trying to figure out why his ears were suddenly malfunctioning. He watched his opponent pucker up and wondered if she was about to kiss him when a large fur ball landed on his shoulders and tried to chew off his helmet. Gagging at the fishy breath of a large cat Duncan tried to beat it off with his mace, but found it difficult to do while he was lying face down. Wooky watched and decided that the guardsman had been rather nice, if rude, and he was doing his job so he didn't deserve to become cat food. She called Bob off, grabbed Mae and Maeve, and took off down the hall.

They very nearly crashed into a rather huge muscle-bound man with blonde hair and brown furry underwear, but they were in too much of a rush to actually stop and gape. "Furry underwear, what is it with these people and furry underwear." Maelynn hissed.

"Who knows," hissed Maeve, "Keep running!" They managed to get to the garden. Rushing to the wall they leapt or levitated over the wall. Maelynn threw invisibility over the three of them and rushed for the ship. Taking back alleys they managed to avoid detection.

Maevrin growled, "These people need to learn better security, especially since they're at war."

Wooky laughed, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, now let's hide on the ship before we are found by such slack security. Wouldn't that damage your pride as a ninja?" Maevrin snarled and ran for their ship.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2**

He-man walked into the corridor which was filled with pandemonium. King Randor was shouting orders, trying his hardest to figure out what was going on. The only people who knew anything about were out of commission. Stratos was cooing something about stars and cute little birdies. Man-at-Arms had somehow apparently been rendered deaf and mute. The Sorceress' illusion showed just how amused she was. The Sorceress was actually laughing, as in laughing so hard she was crying. Every time she looked at Duncan or Stratos she'd break down again. "He-man!" Randor cried in relief, "Am I glad you're here. Do you have any idea at all what happened?"

"Your Majesty, I suspect I know something about it. From what Prince Adam told me there was an assassination attempt on his life."

"What!" Randor roared. His look of confusion and irritation was instantly replaced by a look of concern.

"Yes, your majesty, an attempt on his life. He, however, is well. He ran to me and told me to please stop them from fighting."

"So the assassin was the one that did this?"

"No, sir, the assassin should be in your infirmary undergoing a...a, ahem, strip search. This is per the recommendation of one of the women that saved Adam. No, I'd wager what happened was Man-at-Arms over reacted to something one of the women said."

"What did she say?" Randor asked in morbid curiosity.

"The Sorceress asked the mage of the group to go to Greyskull to learn from her. Duncan, of course, raised the question of safety. Surprisingly, the women agreed, only, they weren't certain the Sorceress wasn't trying to kill them. So they stated that they would go, and if the Sorceress was trying to kill them, then they'd kill her first. They didn't say they'd murder her with no reason, they said they'd do so in self defense." He-man stated, glaring at Duncan when he tried to protest, "Beyond that, I don't know what happened. Stratos told Adam to run, so Adam did, he came to me and asked me to help. So, Duncan, which one of them beat you? Did the mage deafen you?"

The Sorceress finally regained her composure, "No, He-man, the rugged one did. I believe it is some form of sound deafening wall. No sound goes out, none comes in."

"Who took out Stratos?"

"The little one did. She managed to bring out some sort of staff weapon, a glaive or something of the like. She literally pole-vaulted over Stratos and managed to disable his jet-pack. After that, well he took a bit to get up, but by then I think she figured out a weak spot. She hit him and knocked him out. I do believe she's stronger than she appears. She took less than a minute to defeat him. The rugged one defeated Man-at-Arms in the same amount of time. She dodged his lasers and crushed one of them with the flat of her sword. After she did this she cast that sound barrier and whistled."

"Why did she do that?" Randor asked in confusion.

"She did that, apparently, to summon her leopard."

"Adam mentioned nothing about a leopard."

"Well, she had one, it came at Man-at-Arms and started trying to eat his helmet. After that, they apparently decided the two of them had had enough and ran."

"So, they were the ones that nearly ran me over." He-man stated, he was obviously trying not to laugh.

"Yes, I do believe so. I don't think they were trying to harm us, I believe it was all a large, muddled, misunderstanding." the Sorceress stated.

"Misunderstanding!" screamed Teela. He-man winced, he hadn't noticed her there, "Misunderstanding my eye. The cat nearly killed my father!"

The Sorceress nodded, "Yes, but it speaks well of their intentions that the woman called him off before he could. It also speaks of their intention that the little one didn't use her glaive to kill Stratos, as she obviously had the opportunity. She took the difficulty of switching hands and striking him to knock him out."

The medics were taking Stratos out on a stretcher and leading Man-at-Arms away. Teela huffed at the Sorceress and stalked after her father. The Sorceress shook her head, "He-man, you might want to tell Duncan that he shouldn't feel so bad about being defeated by the rugged woman. The mage of their group mention something about it at least not being dragons this time. I believe those three may have slayed a dragon." He-man's eyes widened.

Randor paled, "Do you believe they're a danger to us?"

"No, I believe they truthfully wanted nothing to do with us. The only reason they did show themselves was to save Adam."

Randor nodded slowly, "I will believe that. Sorceress, do you believe they would have been able to kill you had they thought you were out to get them?"

The Sorceress frowned, "That...I do not know. What I do believe is they would have given it their best."

He-man shrugged, "That's all anyone can do. King Randor, I don't believe you'll have to worry about them anymore, though. They mentioned something about supplies and leaving. So they will probably be out of here by now." Randor nodded, relieved.

They all turned to the sound of footsteps. Three of the masters walked into the corridor with puzzled looks on their faces. Buzz-Off looked towards the king, "Your Majesty, do you know what happened here?"

Randor groaned, it was going to be a long day, and, if he wasn't mistaken, he was going to have to retell this story at least five times. He started to speak when the alarms started echoing through the hall. "Attention all Masters!" Teela's voice rang out over their communicators, "There is a water dragon attacking the harbor. We need to get out there now!"

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Maevrin skidded to a stop. Wooky and Maelynn nearly ran into her, they had dropped their invisibility about five minutes ago. Wooky growled, "Maeve, what's the meaning of this? We're almost to our ship!"

Maevrin turned to look at them, her eyes wide, "I don't think we want to be on a ship that has a dragon gnawing on it."

Maelynn's eyes widened, she shot forward and looked at her ship in anguish, "My baby!" she wailed, spinning on her heel, she glared at her two friends, "What is it with you two and dragons? I'd never seen so many dragons until I met you!"

"Hey," protested Wooky, "I'll have you know that Gwen and I never ran into dragons the entire time we were on the frontier. In fact, I never met a dragon until I got shanghaied into working with both you and Maeve."

Maeve gave the feeble mumble, "I never ran into dragons either before we got together."The other two realized how weak that statement sounded and turned accusing eyes on her.

Maevrin shrugged helplessly, "Well, we could kill it and try to salvage the boat..."

Wooky grinned, "I call first shot."

Maelynn growled, "I'll make that thing pay for hurting my baby." She marched forward, growling incantations under her breath.

Maevrin glanced around, searching for the perfect ambush point. Wooky let the ninja do what she was good at, she'd had experience with Maevrin's ambushes, and knew beyond all doubt just how effective they were. Maeve's ambushes had helped them kill a dragon before. Maeve grinned and motioned for the ranger to follow her, Wooky nodded. They slipped out of the alley with a stealth perfected by their chosen careers. Maevrin lead Wooky to a building that actually had stairs built into the wall. These stairs led up to the roof, this was a good thing for Maevrin, who generally avoided climbing. It wasn't that she couldn't, it was more from the fact that she'd had a rather...unusual accident when climbing, once.

Maevrin slid behind the chimney of the house, Wooky following close behind her. Maevrin swiftly limbered up her longbow before stringing it and pulling out a dragon tooth arrow. Wooky had already strung her own bow and was sighting along the arrow. "Poison?" whispered Maeve.

"Of course. The nasty heart poison you made." Wooky grinned.

"Carphar."

"Whatever you say, all I know is that it works. Now what are you waiting for?"

"I'm waiting for Mae to sizzle the thing. I'm also looking for weaknesses." Maevrin grinned, she liked watching Maelynn call on her lightning bolts. The heard a huge boom, which they took as their signal, "There it is. She's distracted it. Shoot now."

Wooky stood and loosed her arrow. The projectile flew straight and true, sinking deep into the hide of the dragon. It reared back, roaring. In doing so it exposed its chest. This is where Maevrin struck. Maeve shot up and loosed her arrow, aiming for the heart. The arrow slid through the armored plating of its chest and struck the heart dead on. The momentum of the dragon's rearing up and being pegged sent the large creature falling backwards into the water, raising a tidal wave in its fall. This, of course, resulted in a sopping Maelynn. Maeve laughed, "Come on, let's get the horns. We can sell those things for a fortune."

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The Masters were flying towards the dragon on their Sky Hawks while He-man rode Battle Cat through the streets. Every other sensible person was running from the dragon. Stratos, fitted with a new jet pack and still suffering from an aching neck, was flying at the head of the formation. He scanned the streets below to see if there were any stragglers. He was rather surprised to see the three women from the palace taking different positions around the dragon. The two that had fought the now recovered Duncan and himself were on a roof and the mage was storming towards the dragon. "Duncan," he called, turning to Man-at-Arms, who could now hear and be heard now that the spell had worn off, "Those three people down there are the ones from the palace. What are they still doing here?"

He was answered by the mage screaming at the dragon to let go of her baby or she'd have stir fried dragon for dinner tonight. "Never mind. That's their ship it is trying to eat."

Teela laughed softly, "Do they think they can take that thing on alone? Honestly, even our lasers can't pierce its armour." Any further comments were cut off by the huge boom that reverberated in their very chests. The mage had just called down lighting on the dragon. The dragon, for all the strength they knew it had, was twitching from the sizzling attack. They watched as the rugged woman on the rooftop swiftly stood and fired an arrow. The arrow actually pierced the hide of the dragon. The Masters were all staring at them in shock. Such a primitive weapon and it worked. The dragon reared back on its legs, exposing its chest and the little woman took her opportunity. She rose and fired her arrow, sinking it straight into the heart of the beast, killing it and toppling it backwards into the water of the harbor.

To say the masters were shocked was an understatement. They stared as the women leapt down from the roof and rushed towards their drenched friend. "Well," Mech-a-Neck muttered, recovering from his shock, "Now I see how they were able to defeat that other dragon they mentioned." Teela swung around to gaze at him, her eyes the size of saucers, "Other dragons...?" she whispered faintly. Mech nodded grimly, he motioned them to land in one of the alleyways leading near the harbor.

After landing they all leapt from their Sky Hawks, well all save Buzz-Off and Stratos, and crept to the mouth of the alley to observe the happenings.

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"My baby," wailed Maelynn as they approached the wrecked ship. There was very little that was salvageable. Their cargo had miraculously survived in tact, but the ship itself was doomed. She swung around to Maevrin and Wooky, "You! You are the ones responsible for this!" she hissed in anger, "The two of you are dragon charms!"

"Yes, Maelynn, we used our infinite power of stupidity to summon a dragon here to destroy our only ship. Why? For the express purpose of stranding ourselves in a land filled with humans, you know oh so well how well we get along with humans." Wooky stated with calm sarcasm. Maelynn's shoulders dropped in defeat, "Besides, Maelynn, you forget, I've never met a live dragon before I met the two of you."

"Well, I'd never met one either...before I'd met you?" Maeve ventured timidly. Maelynn and Wooky swung around to glare at Maeve.

"I don't believe you. You've seen dragons before?" Wooky hissed, "Is that why you were exiled?"

Maevrin blushed, "No...really, never met a dragon before...honest, just pure luck we managed to kill the ones that we've met...?"

Maelynn and Wooky shook their heads in disgust.

Maevrin sighed and walked over tugging lightly on Maelynn's sleeve, "Hey, Mae, if we went and took the horns from the dragon, we might be able to sell them for enough to buy you a new ship. A bigger one if you wanted it..." she trailed off uncertainly. Maelynn blinked, "How do you know if they have the same market for dragon horns here as they do in Thrandall?"

"Because," stated a voice from one of the alleyways, "They do. Dragon bone is stronger than the eternium stuff that they make the weapons from. You might also be able to skin the beast and sell the dragon skin to the armourers...correction, I might be able to sell it to the armourers." Gwen stepped out of the alley, "Why is it that if I leave you alone for more than a minute, you lot always seems to get into trouble?" Married life had changed Gwen, she was more serious now than she had been, but she was also happier than she'd ever been before as well. Galdier, her husband stood behind her, looking at the wreckage of the ship. He shook his head before pulling out the huge axe he used in battle, "Well," Gwen stated, "Why don't you get the dragon out of the water so we can harvest it. Maevrin, you might be able to get some venom from its fangs and claws." Maevrin grinned, bouncing happily she rushed to the water, dragging Maelynn and Wooky with her.

As she was dragged along Wooky called out to ask if dragon meat was poisonous. When Gwen gave a confused no Wooky started grinning like a mad elf.

Gwen turned to one of the other alleyways, after the three women disappeared beneath the waves, "Well, you might as well come out. I know you're there."


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: I do not own He-man. I do not own Rolemaster. I do own Avetre Maevrin and Gwen. My sister owns Wooky, and a friend owns Maelynn, I'm just borrowing these two. _

_AN: I made the mistake of not mentioning how the elf ladies know about Eternia's war. I'm going on the assumption that it is world news._

**Chapter 3**

He-man flinched from the frost in the woman's cultured voice. He stood and walked over to where the new man and woman were standing. The man moved slightly in front of the lady in the trench coat and growled, "If you even think of hurting my wife I will rip you apart boy." To say He-man was startled would be an understatement.

"Please, we mean you no harm, and I would never dream of hurting your wife." the man studied him before nodded and backing away slightly.

The woman looked more amused than anything, she shook her head in fond exasperation, "Honey, I was killing cave trolls before I ever met you, as well as wyverns and other unmentionable creatures. I'm not some wilting lily." The man just grinned, "I know love, but to me you're my greatest treasure, I've got to protect that don't I?"

He-man smiled slightly, these two reminded him of his mother and father. He cleared his throat, "Ma'am, the three ladies that went under the water, they killed the dragon..."

She nodded, "They've done it before, and will likely do it again, especially seeing as Maevrin is apparently dragon jinxed. Are you upset about us harvesting the parts?" she questioned, "If you are, then I'm sorry, but we do need the funds they'll provide us to buy a new ship. We do need to get on with our journey."

He-man cringed inwardly, he really hated the thought of having to tell his father about this, "No ma'am. You can harvest the body, it's just that...well...there was a commotion at the palace...and those three were the main cause of it."

The woman froze. She shut her eyes tightly and dragged her had down her face. He husband started laughing softly. "That's great, just great," she groaned, "Why, is it, that every time I leave them alone for a moment, just one moment, they always do something like this. Are they trying to start and international incident?" At her husband's nod she hissed, "Stop laughing. You haven't had to live with this for a hundred and twenty years."

Her hubby grinned, "Yes, but hopefully I'll get to deal with it for longer than that. You do realize you're going to have to do your diplomatic nonsense to get them out of this." She moaned and nodded stomping towards the palace. The elfin man turned to He-man, "Just how bad is it?"

He-man and the Masters were more amused than angry, "Not too bad actually. They save the prince's life from an assassin. There was just a misunderstanding. We realize that if they'd wanted to they could have killed the people involved and yet they didn't."

Galdier blinked, "They didn't? Man, those guys must have made an impression on them, otherwise they would have died. Those girls generally don't leave any survivors when they fight."

He-man studied him, "They don't?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Well, most of the people they fight are trying to kill them. It is unwise to leave a living enemy behind. Living enemies learn from their mistakes and don't make them again. Sir, I'm a soldier. Those girls were raised during a time of war with none other than the humans. They don't hate humans, but they've learned to kill them if they view them as an enemy." The elfin man stated in a very serious voice.

Teela felt cold chills running up and down her back. Her father had had a closer call than she'd realized. She decided that she might have to thank the woman that defeated him rather than attack her. She turned to He-man to ask him what he recommended they do when two large bubbles of water rose from the harbor. In one of the bubbles were the elfin women and in the other was dragon bone, meat, and hide. The littlest woman was awkwardly stuffing vials of something into her belt bag while hanging onto a huge black claw. She was talking animatedly with the bemused rugged elf. The bubbles popped allowing all present to hear the discussion.

"...Honestly, Wooky, can you imagine the possibilities of a dragon bone naginata? I'm certain it will at least double the sharpness, maybe the total damage of my naginata. If I can manage to keep the venom sacks in it and active then that will make it triply effective. Are you absolutely certain you don't want one of the fangs for a sword? I'm certain it would be at least as effective as that holy sword of yours." the tiny black haired, green eyed elf was almost bouncing around in excitement, "And the sword smiths here are awesome. I'm almost tempted to have them make a katana for me!"

Wooky smiled indulgently at her shorter companion, "We're letting you have the fangs and claws because you're the one that nailed it with the heart shot. You will, however, be splitting the money you get from them with us." Maevrin nodded happily, that was the standard arrangement, with her underground connections she got more money from them than even Gwen could, but they all chose top pick if they were able to split them evenly. For some reason, though, Wooky wouldn't take one of the fangs for a weapon, she felt like it would be a betrayal of her holy sword, "Look, if you're so eager to get me a fang weapon, then why don't you give me the money from the fang and let me get more enchantments on it. That way I keep my nice pretty holy sword and you don't feel too bad." Maeve nodded.

She then asked, "Wooky, what's the meat for?"

Wooky got a contented grin, "This keeps me from having to hunt for meat, especially with Mae's preservation spells. Plus, Bob deserves a treat for not killing what's-his-face."

Maelynn was busy watching the Masters, "Look, you might not be able to do anything with those weapons while you're in jail." Maevrin and Wooky swung around, hands falling toward their weapons when they noticed the Masters' proximity to Galdier. He-man's eyebrow rose when he saw the runt grabbing at thin air behind her back. His other eyebrow joined the raised one when she drew a rather sinister looking katana from some sort of concealment.

Wooky growled, "Dude, you chose the wrong brother-in-law to mess with."

Maeve nodded, "Gwen would be mad at us if we let you hurt Galdier."

Maelynn's eyes narrowed as she prepared a vacuum spell. Galdier decided to end this before it started, "You three are in biiiiiiiiiiig trouble." He smirked.

Wooky looked at him uncertainly, "Why?" She asked nervously.

"Gwen's probably at this moment in deep political discussion with the great high muck-a-muck here and she was not happy to learn that you've caused trouble." he was grinning ferally at the girls. Wooky looked around wildly for her older sister, an unhappy Gwen equaled and equally unhappy Wooky. Gwen's voice could carry worse than a bansidhe. She was contemplating using a sound wall on herself to keep her hearing. Maelynn grumbled, "It wasn't my fault."

Maevrin glared at He-man, "Tattle-tale."

The Masters all looked to Man-at-Arms and Stratos, "Duncan," Mech-a-Neck whispered, "Please tell me you weren't defeated by a person that uses the word 'tattle-tale.'"

Man-at-Arms grinned, "No, but Stratos was."

He-man cleared his throat, drawing all attention to him, "Prince Adam explained to me what happened."

Maevrin perked up, "The blonde boy?" He-man nodded, and Maeve relaxed marginally, "He's okay isn't he? I'd hate to hear that he was hurt."

"Adam is well. Thank you for preventing the assassination." He-man stated calmly. He was rather surprised they were concerned over him.

Maevrin grinned, "That's good, I was worried there might have been more assassins."

Duncan frowned, "Why would you be worried about that?"

"Well, would you have allowed anyone that dumb loose on their own? No, there's probably another one in the palace or in the town." She frowned in contemplation. She really didn't like to think it, but she had to mention it anyway, "In fact, with the lot of you here with us, another assassin might actually use the diversion to get to him." This had the effect of getting the rest of the Masters to run for their Sky Hawks to save Prince Adam.

Man-at-Arms groaned, he looked torn between keeping up the ruse of being concerned over Adam, when he did know that Adam was safer as He-man, and keeping an eye on the women. He turned to them and noticed they were running for the palace. Galdier frowning after them. "Where are they going?" asked Man-at-Arms.

"Probably to save the Prince again." Galdier replied. He scratched his head thoughtfully, "It would seem they liked the boy."

"Come on Duncan, let's go." He-man stated, as he straddled Battle Cat. The great cat bunched up and shot forward before Duncan had a chance to get aboard his Sky Hawk. He-man reached down and grabbed Wooky and Maeve, pulling them onto Battle Cat's back. Maevrin squawked indignantly while Wooky looked at the great beast in appreciation screaming "KITTY!" He-man flinched, 'Great,' he thought, 'a cat fanatic.'

Duncan gunned the Sky Hawk's motor and shot after He-man. He reached over and pulled Maelynn in front of him, "I can get us there faster." he stated, not looking at her. He felt her nod.

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King Randor was relieved to see the Masters running towards him, "I take it the dragon was defeated." he stated, looking at Teela, he was rather surprised when the majority of the Masters shot past him, they'd normally stop to give him a report.

Teela nodded grimly, "Yes, sir, the dragon's dead. The three elfin women killed him."

Randor looked at her in surprise, "So that is why that elfin diplomat was here. We've granted the women pardon, by the way. It was, after all, a misunderstanding."

Teela nodded, "We stayed after to speak with them, but the smaller one, Maevrin, offered a disturbing suggestion." Teela noticed that the woman from the dock, Gwen had made her way over.

Gwen groaned, "What did she suggest..."

Teela frowned, "She was concerned about Prince Adam, apparently they'd taken a liking to him. She suggested that another assassin was probably here. Something about the ineptitude of the previous one. Maevrin suggested that if another assassin was here then that one would probably be out to kill the prince while the rest of us were distracted."

King Randor paled drastically, Queen Marlena gasped. Randor grabbed Teela's shoulder, "Tell me, where is my son?"

Teela shook her head, "I don't know, sir, I haven't seen Adam since this morning. He-man said he'd run into him. I can only hope Adam's better at hiding than the assassin is." Teela hated to say that, but she had to. Marlena gave a choked sob as she buried her head under Randor's chin.

Gwen's lips pursed as she considered the options. She rather liked this royal family and would like to help, "Your majesties, I have a ranger for a sister. Wooky can track anything, she once tracked my ward across an ocean. If I can get her, then we stand a great chance of finding you son, a better chance than an assassin might." Randor looked at her hopefully, Marlena's eyes suddenly filled with hope, "Really?" Gwen nodded and hoped that her sister didn't make her a liar.

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Wooky, mean while, was concentrating on using her destiny sense to find the prince. She concentrated on what she wished for, 'I want to find Prince Adam, tell me where he is.' Her senses tingled, the Prince was behind her. She turned and looked, right into the chest straps of He-man, growling she shoved him sideways, nearly toppling off of Battle Cat to see if the Prince was behind them. Imagine her surprise when the sense moved with He-man. She jerked her head to look at He-man's shocked face. Maevrin, who'd been riding behind He-man stared at her in bemusement, "What was that about?"

Wooky ignored her studying the big man who was righting himself in Battle Cat's saddle, "Okay, spill, how in the world did you change from a scrawny little boy into a big muscle bound man." He-man's face paled, she spoke again before he had a chance to protest, "Don't even think of arguing about it. I have a sense known as destiny sense. I wanted to find the young Prince Adam, and guess what, it pointed to you. So tell me, how does one go from scrawny to brawny in the coarse of a few minutes?" Duncan was gaping at them by this point in time.

He-man groaned, then said in a hopeful tone of voice, "Magic?"

Maevrin decided to come to his rescue, "Wooky, tomorrow use your D-sense to point you to an assassin named Hematite Obsidian. It will no doubt point to me. That's my nin-name."

Wooky nodded, she understood where Maeve was coming from, nodding she muttered, "The boy has magic which allows him to transform, so yeah, he needs to keep it a secret. Something tells me this boy is a rather well known hero and for that reason he must keep it a secret."

He-man looked over his shoulder at the smaller elf, giving her a slight smile. Maeve grinned,

"Sooooo, brawny furry underpants dude, where is it that you want us to find you? They are going to most likely ask us to find you so, where do you want to hide?"

Wooky growled but looked at him expectantly, "Good point. Okay Mr. Furry underpants, where do you want us to find you?"


	5. Chapter 5

_I do not own He-man or Rolemaster. _

**Chapter 4**

"There they are!" Teela cried as Battle Cat came over the wall, followed by her father.

"Wooky, destiny sense now, Prince Adam." Gwen commanded, Wooky nodded and concentrated. While He-man rushed to "search the palace."

Wooky's eyes suddenly opened, "This way!" She shot off, in the opposite direction of He-man. Following the directions given to her by the large man she wandered through the royal palace. Every once in a while she would pause to "ascertain the direction" before moving on. Theirs was a twisting diluted path that eventually led to the perfect hiding place, a small cul-du-sac that was just barely visible, if one was looking for it, over the colonnade even Maevrin was jealous of the hiding place, it was perfect. "Prince Adam!" Wooky called, "Prince Adam, please come out, there might be another assassin after you!"

The prince's shaggy head appeared at the edge of his hiding place, "Oh good, Duncan didn't hurt you!" he called down.

Wooky's eyebrow arched, "I'm fairly certain I can take on a half grown whelp such as him."

Adam laughed nervously before sliding down the column that supported his hiding place. He staggered when his feet hit the ground. He caught a hold of the column to steady himself when he heard a whistle of air. Jumping back, he barely avoided the arrow that just grazed his cheek. Looking around wildly he noticed the Masters jumping to action looking for the unseen assassin. Teela was running for him as well as Maevrin. They heard the twang of a bow string right as Teela threw herself over her friend. Adam's eyes widened in dismay at the thought of Teela dieing for him. He tried to move to shift her when he noticed Maeve had somehow caught the missile.

Maelynn growled as she threw a large radius vacuum ball to where she'd seen the arrow come from, the top of one of the garden sheds. Sure the two flyers were already headed for it, but her vacuum would reach it first. Everyone flinched, hearing the hearty boom as the vacuum hit and blew the shed, assassin and all, up. The assassin was flung like a rag doll right into the awaiting arms of Stratos and Buzz-Off.

Adam watched, impressed by the team work displayed by the elfin ladies when he heard the crunch of gravel being walked on. Looking up he saw the smirking face of Wooky, "Hey, rusty, I think you can get off of your boyfriend now." Both Adam and Teela went beet red as Teela scrambled away from the prince. Wooky turned to Maeve, who was testing the arrow she'd caught for poison, "Good skill to have, being able to anticipate where a missile's going to be, isn't it Maeve." The black haired elf nodded, distracted by the arrow. Casting a spell to resist poisons on herself she started sniffing the arrow and touched the tip of her tongue to it. Her eyes widened as she moved the arrow away from her revolted by the presence of such a foul poison. "What is it?" Wooky asked, shocked that the poison fanatic looked revolted at any poison.

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Skeletor was cackling madly. His latest plan, the death of Prince Adam was a stroke of brilliance, even if he did say so. The fact that said death was guaranteed because of both the caliber of the poison being used and the caliber of the nins he'd hired. Those two ninja were the best Eternia had, he was certain they'd already done the deed. He'd have to check with Triclopse and see, but first, he'd have to gloat, and then, yes, he'd gloat some more. He'd spent a small fortune to get what little poison there had been. He'd used every last bit of it to coat all the assassins' weapons, but he didn't begrudge a bit of it. That poison, that wonderful poison was the last of its kind. It was considered a myth by many, including those fools the Masters of the Universe. He threw his head back and cackled madly, oh how he loved being evil.

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Maevrin growled, "This arrow's poisoned. It's only known to effect humans, it's one of the nastiest poisons, at least in terms of a long term death. Some people consider it a myth."

Wooky nodded, "Maelynn, I think you should probably destroy all their arrows."

Maeve shook her head, "No, you should destroy all their weapons period."

Maelynn shrugged, "Are you certain, I mean that smacks of too much paranoia."

Maevrin shrugged, "Human assassins never made sense to me, and I doubt they'll start anytime soon. To be on the safe side, I really would suggest that you do destroy all the weapons, they were terrible assassins so it would stand to reason they were thinking to use the poison to take care of their ineptness..." Maelynn nodded, rolling her eyes at the rampant paranoia Wooky and Maeve displayed more often than not, "Actually, Mae, just destroy all their clothes too, just to make certain."

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King Randor watched the three girls bicker between themselves over what to do to destroy the poison. The tall blonde one finally threw up her hands and stated that she'd burn the poisoned materials and as it was her power they were using to destroy things that she'd not listen to either of them. Adam had gotten to his feet and was helping Teela up. Randor shook his head in exasperation at the boy, once, just once would he like to see Adam not run. He knew it was too much to hope for, but still, a father could dream couldn't he?

Gwen looked over at the king, "Your son is safe, aren't you happy?"

King Randor nodded, "Of course I'm happy. Why would you think I'm not?"

"The scowl maybe. Look I don't pretend to know what's going on here, and truthfully I don't really care, but wouldn't a loving father go and...I don't know, hug his son, make certain he's alright?"

King Randor started to go red with anger, he was going to give the interfering elf a piece of his mind when Marlena chimed in, "What a wonderful idea, come on Randor, let us make certain our son is well." the Queen reached over, grabbing her husband's arm and dragging him over to their son. Adam noticed this and gave his mother a happy smile. His father, however, received a sad look which was quickly replaced by a smile that didn't quite erase the hurt in the prince's eyes. Randor suddenly felt like a heel (which is good because he was one).

Marlena threw her arms around her boy, "I'm so glad the assassins didn't hurt you, they didn't did they?" she pushed him away and started to look at him, making certain there were no scratches, bruises, or other wounds. Her eyes widened as she took in the graze on his cheek, "Please tell me that wasn't made by any of the arrows..." she whimpered.

Wooky growled and swung around, searching the grounds for the arrow that might have made the cut. Maevrin mentally ran through the poison, characteristic, and possible antidotes. Maelynn walked over to Adam and grabbed his chin, her eyes unfocused as she examined the wound, searching for any trace of poison, "Maeve, he was poisoned, can you by chance do your poison resistance spell on him?"

Maeve frowned, "I don't know, I'll have to meditate and see if I can figure out a way to do that, or maybe you could teach me how to heal...I think I heard of a spell for something like this."

Maelynn considered, "I think there is one, I'll try to give you a background in it so you can adapt your spell. As it is, do the best you can."

Maeve nodded, she walked up to Adam, who by now was starting to look rather peakish, "Relax kid. I'm a poison mistress, I believe I'll be able to make an antidote for this stuff. Until then I'll just keep renewing the spell that resists it." She reached up, placing a hand over the cut she started concentrating. She grinned, "Got it Mae, I'll still need your help with the healing spells, just in case."

Randor by now had paled considerably, "Will Adam be alright?"

Maevrin nodded, "Yeah, I'm just going to need to renew the spell daily until I either learn a spell to completely cure it or we develop and antidote for it. Wooky and Mae will need to go out and forage for some of the herbs we need, though."

Randor nodded, "Adam, I'm going to have to ask you to stay in the infirmary until this is cured. Maevrin, you might consider working with our head doctor, Dorgan, to develop the antidote. Come along, Adam." Randor and Marlena led their son to the infirmary, Maevrin, Wooky, and Maelynn trailing behind. The Masters were all standing there, digesting the news that their prince was poisoned, and from Maeve's reaction, it was a very despicable poison.

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Randor was pacing. He was not a happy camper, no, not happy indeed. He was in his study waiting on a report from his interrogators. Surprisingly Marlena, Adam, and the party of elves were there as well. The dragon's attack had placed a large number of people in the infirmary and Dorgan had pretty much stated that as long as Adam didn't over-exert himself, he could stay with the elfin women. Why he specified the elfin women? Well, they seemed to be the only people who could fight the poison at the moment.

Randor's pacing ceased when the doors flew open, his interrogators had arrived, "Sir!" cried the eldest, "Those blasted, wretched nins won't tell us anything save that they're free lance ninjas!"

Randor could feel the twitch develop in his eyebrow. He was about to start screaming when Maevrin bounced up, "Come on Wooky, let's go interrogate them. You said we could if they didn't find anything out."

Wooky, for her part was starting to look rather green, "Now, Maeve, don't you have to ask the king?" Wooky's eyes pleaded with the king, don't let her do it.

Maelynn sighed, "She needs to do it Wooky, who better than a nin to interrogate a nin?"

Randor seized upon that, "Maevrin, you have my permission to interrogate the assassins, take my men with you. Maelynn, will you be able to handle any circumstances that might crop up concerning Adam?"

Maelynn grimaced, "Yes sir, but we might want to be close to whichever cell the interrogations occur in...just in case we need Maeve."

Randor nodded, eagerly, "Then let us be off at once." He tried to ignore Gwen's snickered statements of how much he was going to regret that.

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Adam grimaced as another bout of agonized screaming reached his ears, "Do you have any idea what it is that she'd doing?" he pleaded with Maelynn, who was bent over a basin, retching.

Gwen looked like she'd rather be anywhere but there at the moment, a sentiment shared by most of the others, she rather felt sorry for Wooky. Wooky was helping with the interrogation, poor girl. Another scream pierced the walls of their room, it was much higher pitched than the previous ones, "That, Adam, judging by the pitch could either be the nails or the cheese grater. With all due respect your majesty," Gwen turned to Randor in desperation, "Didn't you say these rooms were sound proof?"

Randor nodded, quickly covering his ears as the screams reached an even higher pitch, "They were supposed to be. I would ask you to use some magic to drown out the sounds, but these rooms are also magic resistant. How can anyone be so cruel?"

Gwen grimaced, "When nin go for information, it is not a situation of 'tell me and I'll let you live' it is more of a situation of 'tell me and I'll kill you fast, don't and I'll drag it out to the point of necromancy.' You do not want to be interrogated by a nin."

Randor nodded, ashen faced, "I don't think I'll ever forget that piece of advice." His ears pricked up, "The screams are gone...does that mean they're done?"

Gwen considered, "Either Maeve got what she wanted or they passed out. If she got what she wanted then chances are they're dead." Randor started to protest, "Sir, that in and of itself is a mercy, they'd feel it for the rest of their lives if they weren't." Gwen stated firmly. Randor nodded reluctantly. Adam had slumped against his mother, who for some odd reason hadn't been in the least disturbed by the screams. Maelynn staggered over to Adam, checking to see if the poison was still contained, it was.

Maelynn smiled reassuringly at Marlena, "It's alright, still contained." Marlena nodded. They were in the process of trying to get Adam upright when the door to their room crashed open. A green faced Wooky shot towards the basin Maelynn had abandoned. Mae looked at her sympathetically, "Was it that bad?" Wooky acted like she didn't hear her so Mae tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to jump. Looking annoyed, Wooky cancelled the sound wall she had on herself.

Wooky glared at her weakly, wiping her mouth off she stated, "I'll never, ever, allow her to talk me into helping her ever again. At least I didn't have to hear the screams this time." She quickly turned her head back to the basin, retching again. The interrogators staggered in muttering something about monstrous chipmunks.

Maeve walked in, a smug look on her face, "The lot of you are complete and utter rookies when it comes to interrogation." She was wiping her hands and arms off on a towel. Randor paled when he saw that her arms were covered in blood, "First order of business, Gwen, I've figured out how to heal the prince. The poison only affects humans, so can you use that dagger of yours to change him into an elf?" Gwen's eyes lit up, as she nodded eagerly, "Good, we'll need to do that for the rest of the week, Maelynn and I'll keep an eye on him just in case, but that should cover it. Wooky, I'll still need you to find the herbs we discussed." Wooky nodded weakly, not turning away from the basin, "Sir," Maeve turned to Randor, "The man that hired them was some loon named Skeletor. They also confirmed that the last remnants of the poison were used to coat all of their weapons. You do of course realize you'll have to take out that loon before he gets any worse."

Randor nodded, "I've decided that we've been too nice in this war, we're going to have to make certain this never happens again, even if it means killing someone."

Gwen nodded, "Good, if you want we can help you convince anyone you need to convince." Randor gladly accepted the offer.

_**AN:** Allow me to point out that none of the afore-mentioned characters get grossed out easily, and they are not to be mocked for said grossing out. It is just that the protesting characters have more of an honor system than Maevrin. As such, they are more revolted by the darker arts of the ninja._


	6. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: I do not own He-man or Rolemaster._

_AN: I should have done this two chapters ago, Thank you for the review Ambrant Arandel. I enjoy constructive criticism in that it allows me to become a better writer and allows me to fix the mistakes I make in my stories. If anyone else has anymore criticism, then please review._

**Chapter 5**

Teela was running through her staff exercises in a desperate attempt to get her mind off of Adam's poisoning. She and the other Masters were all in the training courts trying not to think. Ram Man, being the expert in not thinking, was leading the practices. Duncan was sulking on one of the benches, bummed by the fact that his young friend had been hurt on his watch. Teela groaned and stopped swinging her cobra staff. She turned to her father, "Daddy, it wasn't your fault, and there wasn't really anything you could do. There wasn't anything I could to until after that shot was fired."

Duncan nodded sadly. He looked at his clenched fists, "And yet, those elves can help him. This is just wrong."

"Sir," Mech-a-Neck spoke up, "From what I've read, elves are more in tune with nature than humans, their magic's are different from ours. So...it kind of makes sense they can do something we can't."

Stratos nodded in agreement, "My people have, on occasion, had alliances with Thrandal, the Elfin continent. They do things differently from the norm. The main reason their magic is so...refined, is mainly because their technological standing is rather...lacking." He flinched, those were the only terms he could think of. They had a medieval technological standing and so relied on magic to make up for it. Sighing he tried to explain, "You've seen them look at our technology, they don't understand it anymore than we understand their magic. We have what they don't have, and they have what we are very lacking in. That poison is from a time when our magic's and technology were both lacking. As it stands, Adam got poisoned at a good time. We've got the technology and they've got the magic, with the two we should be able to save him."

Duncan started to look more cheerful as he heard Stratos' reasoning. Of course, there was generally a deficit of technology in magic rich realms and vice versa. Adam would live through this. Speaking of Adam, the elf that just emerged from the palace looked extremely like Adam, maybe a bit more handsome but still Adam. The elfin party bouncing after him was unmistakable. "Adam?" he asked in an incredulous tone. He started shaking his head in confusion, "Adam, why in the blazes do you have pointy ears? Your features have changed a little..."

Teela turned to see what her father was rambling about and was almost bowled over from shock. Her eyes widened and it was only by sheer force of will that she kept herself from salivating. 'Adam,' she thought, 'makes a very hot elf.' She would of course deny ever thinking such things and was in the process of throttling her mind mercilessly for thinking it, but still... "Adam," she smirked, "I like the new look, maybe you should keep it?" she teased her friend when he was near enough to hear her.

Adam glared at Teela. He covered his ears with his hands and grumbled, "You don't have to scream it." Teela looked at him in confusion, she'd spoken at her normal level. Adam groaned and turned his glare to the unrepentant elfin women, "You forgot to warn me about the ears."

Maevrin shrugged, "Sorry, we're so used to them we kind of forget about them."

Wooky grinned, "Besides, it's healing you faster than not by keeping the ears boy-o."

Duncan looked at her suddenly, "What do you mean by that?"

Wooky gave him a cocky grin, "The poison only affects humans, elves have a naturally high resistance to all poisons and diseases. I mean, have you ever heard of a sick elf? So, we're just going to have to keep him in elfin form for about a week so we can be certain his poison's gone. No biggy."

Duncan gaped at them, "How in the world did you change his genetic structure?"

Maevrin looked confused, "What's a genetic structure? All we did was change his kind. There's a spell known as change kind, it's effective for 24 hours and it pretty much grants the recipient certain traits of the kind they're changed to..."

Gwen nodded, "As such, Adam's senses are greatly...sensitized I guess is the word we're looking for, but his immune system is also a great deal better as well."

Duncan nodded slowly, he could understand where they were coming from, "So, his new immune system will help fight the poison." he clarified. At the girl's nods he breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh, good. It isn't affecting him now is it?"

Maelynn shook her head, "It's still there, but a bit of the poison was released and therefore uncontained. We're letting the new immune system deal with it. That is the most effective way and the safest, by allowing just a bit out of containment then we'll slowly destroy the poison in his system. By the way, you can now use the two cells that were containing your prisoners."

Mech-a-Neck's eyes widened, "King Randor can't have granted them freedom in exchange for information!" he looked around frantically, expecting the assassins to jump out at any moment. In his search he discovered that the majority of the elves were now looking rather pale and sick, "Are you certain the poison can't affect elves, you all look rather shaky at the moment."

Maeve shook her head in amusement, "No, the poison doesn't affect elves. The lot of them are just big babies."

"Ever so sorry, Maevrin, but some of us don't like your methods of interrogation over much." Wooky growled. She turned to Mech and stated, "No, Maevrin granted their fondest desire, swift death rather than the long, drawn out one she would have given them, some people have a different set of morals than the rest of us."

Maevrin glared, "I have whatever morals my clan wants me to have. In war there are many casualties, not just on the battlefield either." then she grinned and bounced off to explore the area they were in.

Wooky turned and grinned at the assembled Masters, "So, anyone want to spar?" They turned pale and started backing away, shaking their heads. She pouted, "Come on you big babies, I'll even go easy on you...somewhat."

Teela grinned, "Weren't you supposed to be looking for some herbs?"

Wooky turned to the red head, "Yes, actually I was. Gwen, do you know of any herbs that act as olios to humans?"

Gwen tilted her head, "You know, I think I remembered hearing something about one...what was it called...sidos I think. Works the same way. Why don't I go with you, that way I'll be able to identify any useful herbs."

Wooky grinned and nodded, she turned to move towards the gates, much to the relief of the Masters. As she turned to go she caught sight of a rather odd cat. It was actually a tiger, a green tiger with yellow stripes. She stopped to contemplate it as it walked up to Adam, "Adam, are those crazy elves gone yet?" it spoke to its master, "and why do you have pointy ears?" Wooky's eyes widened as she stared at the talking cat.

Wooky slowly started to grin as she bounced over to the kitty, "Kitty! It's a talking Kitty!" she crowed ecstatically. Gwen rolled her eyes before grabbing her sister and dragging Wooky away. Everyone stared after them in wonder, listening to Wooky crying that she wanted a talking kitty, would Gwen get her a talking kitty for her birthday. They turned questioning eyes to Maevrin and Maelynn.

Maeve shrugged, "Yeah, she's always like that around cats, especially with unique cats. We've never run into a talking cat before." Maelynn groaned something about that being an understatement. Maeve chuckled softly, "She has three cats, one of them is a house cat, that's Fred. There's a lion, that's George. And then," she grinned malevolently at Duncan, "you've met Bob." Duncan shuddered.

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Gwen and Wooky wandered into the jungle looking at the strange plants and animals. Gwen was practically drooling over some of the strange plants they found and gathered like mad elves. After about an hour of exclaiming "Herb, good herb, oh superb herb of healing, poison, eww poison, and please don't kill me while I pick you poison," the two sisters started talking about their impressions of the people they had met. The both agreed that Duncan was smart but too dependent on machines, Teela was a capable fighter but couldn't see beyond the nose on her face about certain things, Stratos was interesting, Ram Man was stupid but kind of funny, Adam was good at hiding stuff in his act, King Randor was a good king but had troubles in the dad department, and Queen Marlena was their favorite human woman ever. Gwen kept talking saying "Buzz Off is just creepy. I mean seriously, bugs are supposed to be smaller than people."

Wooky said, "Well, what do you think about spiders being over ten feet high?"

Gwen replied, "I think I would develop a sudden case of arachnophobia. Why?"

"I hope not, because I would hate to rescue that wolf and you by myself," her sister snarked.

Gwen looked at where Wooky was looking and nearly freaked out when she saw the humongous tarantula looking spider threatening a wolf that was stuck in a trap. "I'll hold it if you kill it," she said in a mildly shaky voice.

Wooky looked dubious but showed her agreement by notching an arrow and loosing it at the multifaceted eyes of the monstrosity. This partly blinded the spider and served to distract if from the wolf. Gwen started to sing and play her lute. The spider froze and then started to move sluggishly. Wooky smirked and drew her sword to deliver a death blow. Just as she started to swing and decapitate the monster, one of the strings on Gwen's lute broke causing the spider to become unfrozen. Ducking the suddenly swinging legs Wooky screamed at Gwen to stop playing around and hurry up. Gwen, while frantically trying to restring her lute, screamed back, "Hold on while I finish this book. Of course I'm hurrying."

Wooky's adrenaline started pumping, allowing her to perform a massive swing from beneath the spider's body that removed one leg and cut the one across from it half-way off. The spider reared up to try to get away from the dangerous annoyance underneath it. It tried to bite the elf but Wooky danced out of the way and sliced at another set of legs. Wounded and enraged, the spider kept attacking while Wooky dodged and attacked when she had a chance. Finally seeing an opening, Wooky charged in and drove her sword deep into the chest area of the spider and dragged it down the length of its body. The spider gave a convulsive heave and collapsed in a heap, just missing Gwen and the wolf in its backwards fall.

Giving Wooky a baleful glare, Gwen moved to check on the wolf and free it from its trap. Freeing him with the assistance of Wooky, they checked the wolf out and treated its injuries as best they could while it tried to lick their faces off. "I don't like wolves. I like cats you flea bitten fur ball," Wooky complained as she tried to push off the enthusiastic animal. Gwen just laughed and put up with it. She may have been more empathic with cats, but she could tolerate wolves because of her husband's status as a wolf-rider in the military. Finally escaping the drooling tongue of doom, Wooky inspected the fallen spider and gave a victorious grin.

"What do you think we should take as trophies for this one?" Wooky chirped.

Gwen looked it over and stated, "Let's take the fangs. They're easier to carry and are bound to have poison that will make Maeve happy."

Hacking off the fangs while not damaging the poison sacks was challenging, but doable. After gathering the fangs, herbs, and poisons, the two elves hiked back to the castle. All the while, they were trailed by an enthusiastic animal that would not take no for an answer.

When they arrived back, they found Duncan and Adam trying to explain chess to Mae and Maeve, a task that was not made easier by the advice given by the other Masters. Finding a respite from the need to use her abused sense of logic, Maeve greeted the returning elves and asked if they got their stuff. Wooky smirked and started pulling stuff from her bulging pack, starting with the huge spider fangs.

Maeve shrieked happily when she saw the poison sacks and sprang forward saying, "Gimme!" Wooky smirked and held them high above her head, "What's the magic word?"

Maeve pouted, "Give me now or I kill you?"

"Magic word."

Strychnine."

"No, pretty word though."

"Arsenic?"

"You have entirely too much of a poison fetish."

"Like you should talk."

"Point, I'm thinking more along the lines of 'please'..."

"Oh...oh right! Pretty please gimme with a cherry on top?"

"That's better; see it doesn't hurt to ask nicely, now does it?" Wooky stated before handing the fangs to Maeve, who quite eagerly snatched them out of her hands. Wooky shook her head, really, Maeve, for all that she was thirty years older, could act like such a child at times. She turned and noticed that their argument had attracted the attention of the Masters, who looked quite disturbed. She shrugged, "It's more effective to add poison to one's weapon, that way, even if you only hit an enemy once it's pretty much done for save for the few that resist." They nodded uncertainly before shuddering and turning their attention to Maevrin who was analyzing the poison sacks intently, they looked even more uncertain, they were starting to develop a strong sense of fear for the munchkin with the poison fetish.

Mech-a-Neck calmly walked over, for some reason at ease with the munchkin, and examined the fangs. He glanced back up at Wooky, "I take it you ran into a tirantuloid? How big was it?"

Gwen stared at him, "You mean there are more of those things around?" she squeaked.

Mech nodded, "Yep, we run into them on a fairly regular basis. So, how big was it?"

Wooky shrugged, "About ten feet, give or take a foot. It was trying to eat a wolf."

Galdier who, seeing his wife return, had made his way over ogled, "You took my wife to kill a big bug. Not only a big bug, but a big venomous bug, bad venomous by Maeve's expression." they glanced over to Maeve, he was right, her expression was that of a particularly malevolent homicidal maniac, who had just found an interesting toy. He shook his head and turned to Gwen, "I forbid you from killing big bugs ever again."

Gwen glared at him, "You can if you like, but then I keep the puppy and you sleep on the couch, for the next two centuries." She turned and stormed off to who knows where, the wolf trailing after her like a big, happy puppy.

Galdier stared after his wife in shock before running after her whining, "Gweeeeeeeeeen!"

Wooky watched them in amusement, "She likes to scare him like that." Maelynn snorted, that was a major understatement.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 6**

Maelynn jumped as she remembered something important, "Wooky, Maeve didn't ask for it, but did you get the herbs we need?"

Wooky nodded and dug through her pack, "We weren't able to find any sidos, but we did find some goodies, including ones that would make Maeve very happy. The herbs the two of you specified for the antidote were sort of tricky to find, but we did find them."

Maelynn sighed, "Good. Gwen will need to renew her change kind spell while we work on it. I was thinking of actually going to see the Sorceress and seeing if she could actually help. Maeve's good at identifying poisons, but I don't think she's that great with the antidotes."

Maevrin looked up from studying her poison sacks, "You know I generally don't have much call for people to actually live through my poisons. I will however be going with you to see the Sorceress. We shouldn't trust very many people without meeting them first."

Wooky shrugged, "Where munchkin goes, I go. Someone needs to keep her out of trouble."

Mae glared at Wooky, "You know I can keep her out of trouble."

"I meant without bodily harm and the tendency to twitch."

Mae pouted, "Spoil sport."

"I live to please."

Maeve, for her part was busy ignoring them, electing rather, to grin malevolently at the Masters that remained in the practice yard. It wouldn't have been so bad had she not been stroking her poison sacks. Ram Man, Buzz-off, and Stratos were starting to look rather nervous. Duncan was annoyed Adam and Mech-a-neck looked more amused than anything. Mae finally noticed what Maeve was doing. With a sigh she walked over and smacked the mini-elf on the back of the head, "Behave."

Maeve pouted, "Do I have to?"

"Yes."

Duncan grinned at the mini-elf, who stuck her tongue out at him. He was about to say something to her when one of the king's footmen came running up to him. He frowned and turned to the out of breath man. "Sir," gasped the man, "the king wishes to speak with you, Prince Adam, and the…elves."

"Where?"

"His Majesty's study."

"How fast does he want us there?"

"Take your time, sir," the footman looked behind him nervously, "I'm just running from a wolf and a leopard that seem to have decided that I was their new playmate." He shuddered before yelping and taking off. The two aforementioned animals streaked off after him.

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Wooky grinned as they entered King Randor's study. The source of her amusement was in the fact that Gwen and Galdier were already there and were still bickering and Randor's eyes were bouncing back and forth between the couple. Marlena, seated at her king's side was laughing softly. Adam made his way over to his mother; he hoped to stay out of Randor's sight for a bit.

"Gwen, just go ahead and forgive him already. You know you can't stay mad at him forever. Besides, you agree that you don't want to fight anymore big spiders ever again." Wooky laughed.

Gwen's head snapped around to glare at her sister, "That is beside the fact. I don't want that man to forbid me from fighting when he knows that I'm bloody well able to take care of myself. I'm a soldier and I've been through more scrapes than he can even imagine!"

Galdier was starting to look frantic, "I'm not meaning to suffocate you, love. You know I'm not. I just don't want to loose you."

Gwen pouted, "I can still take care of myself. If you're that worried, you can come with us next time." Galdier nodded eagerly. He was out of trouble. (AN: The mandatory newly wed mushies are now out of the way)

Randor cleared his throat, "As touching and amusing as this has been, can we please get to the reason why I've asked you all here?"

Maeve grinned, "Sure, why did you ask us here?"

Randor frowned, "You know, most people are infinitely more polite than that."

Wooky grinned, "Well, sir, if Maeve starts acting polite, then you know it isn't her, or she's up to something, or she wants something. In any case, a polite Maeve is a frightening thing."

Randor sighed, "Alright, moving on. I asked the lot of you here so that I could offer the use of some of our guest rooms to you. I would rather you stay close so that you will be on hand to help us with Adam's poison."

Gwen nodded, "That makes sense, especially when one takes into account that we're the only ones that seem to know anything about the poison."

Maelynn frowned at her, "Maevrin's the only one that knows about the poison, don't pair me with her." Maeve stuck her tongue out at her tall friend.

Wooky sighed, "Whatever. Sir, I agree that we should stay here just in case, but if you are worried about an emergency with Prince Adam, then I'd suggest that you place us near the prince," she nodded towards Adam who looked at her sheepishly, "We'll need to get to him fast if something happens to him. We'll also need to visit the Sorceress tomorrow so that we can get the antidote made."

Randor nodded, "Granted. Will four rooms be sufficient?"

Gwen and Galdier shook their heads, "We'll need to stay together. No offence intended, sir, but we still don't trust humans all that much. We've been at war with them for too long."

Randor nodded, "Understandable, so two rooms? I'm assuming the other three will want one room and the two of you the other."

Maeve and Wooky both made disgusted faces, "Yes, please." Maelynn just laughed.

Marlena smiled briefly before looking seriously at the elfin party, "My husband is trying to be diplomatic, but you must understand why I ask this of you. How much do you know about the situation here?" Randor frowned and tensed up; they didn't need to know more than what had been fed to most of the outlying continents. Adam, for his part, looked confused if the elves knew what was going on, they might be able to help.

Wooky frowned and looked to Gwen. Gwen just shrugged and nodded, giving Wooky the signal to go ahead. Wooky sighed, "Well, we know about as much as any soldier would know, ma'am. We know that you are at war with someone on you own land or continent, but we don't know whom. We do know that you've been taking diplomatic steps to gain allies, and that for humans you are okay. We know enough about your war to know that you're going to be at it for a long while unless something happens to break it."

Maevrin fidgeted before speaking, "I know that I've heard something about there being a small group at the center of all the trouble. I've heard rumors that the cabal is made up of monsters for the most part. Beyond that, I'm as in the dark about it as they are, when you people keep things quiet, you keep things quiet." Gwen frowned; the nin of the group didn't know much more than they did, that just smelled of all sorts of bad things.

Marlena nodded, "That's all I wanted to know. If the Sorceress feels that you need to know more, she'll tell you."

Randor relaxed, "Adam and Duncan will be escorting you to Castle Grayskull to meet with the Sorceress, tomorrow. I trust you can keep out of trouble until then?" He stood and walked to the door, "Henry," he spoke to one of the footmen, "will you escort these ladies and man to the two guestrooms across from the Prince's room?" The footman bowed and gestured for the elves to follow him.

Duncan studied his old friend for the few moments it took for the elves to leave, "Why did you want me here, Your Majesty?"

Randor sighed, "I wanted your judgment, were they telling us the truth?"

Duncan hesitated before nodding, "They told us the truth as they knew it. I don't know if they know more than they're telling, but I do think that if they do, they don't know they do. I know that didn't make much sense."

Adam spoke up, "It makes some sense, Duncan. They might think that what they've heard could be a frightened populace. Who in their right minds would believe there is a skeleton leading a powerful army in Eternia? I, for one, wouldn't believe it myself had I not seen it."

Randor nodded, wars were ripe for gossip and horror stories, some of which, while real, were unbelievable.

Duncan frowned, "Your Majesties, I think it might be wise to tell the elves. They might be of some help to us, or at least tell us some useful spells we could pass onto our spell casters."

Randor ran a hand through his hair, "You might be right, Duncan, but let us wait until the Sorceress gives us her opinion."

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The next morning Adam walked briskly over to one of the rooms housing the elves. He didn't know which group was in the room, but he knew they needed to get to Grayskull as soon as possible. He eyed the door nervously before straightening his back and knocking. At that moment he heard a yelp and a thud. The door opened to reveal Maelynn looking rather smug. "Adam, how nice to see you this fine morning, please do come in." She moved aside to let him see the veritable pandemonium the three elves had wrought.

Adam stared in awe at the complete and utter mess that had been made of the guest quarters. Furniture had been overturned, cat hair was everywhere, as was wolf hair. The sheets were torn up and there were burn marks on the walls and carpet. Maevrin…Maevrin was literally climbing the wall to get away from the wolf and the leopard, both of which looked like they wanted Maeve burgers. Wooky was propped up against the wall and completely overcome with laughter, between laughs she managed to gasp out, "And that, rookie, is why you do not poke cats…or dogs for that matter."

Maevrin, happily, had finally reached a place where she was safely out of harm's way, "They were snoring! Cats and dogs are not supposed to snore! I had to poke them to preserve what's left of my sanity!" she whined.

Adam, still shell-shocked by the mess, looked over to Maelynn. Mae smiled sympathetically, "This is a day in my life. Don't worry, we will fix things up…rather I'll have to magic things right."

"Adam!" cried Maeve, "How are you feeling, we need to get Gwen up so she can renew her spell on you and then we can be on our way." She turned a manic grin to Wooky, "She's your sister, so you get the pleasure of making with the wakies."

Wooky glared at Maeve, "You do know, I'm the one that Bob listens to…."

Maeve grinned, "You do know that I can kill both of you in your sleep quite easily, don't you?"

Adam looked alarmed at the threat, "You do know that I would have to report that if you did…."

Maeve and Wooky turned to the prince and grinned, "Yep!" before turning back and bickering at each other.

Maelynn turned to Adam, "Relax, they're just behaving normally. Maeve won't actually attack and kill us…at least I think she won't. Maybe if she was ordered to…. Okay, that was just a downright disturbing thought," she turned and looked sternly at the diminutive elf, "Maeve! You wouldn't kill us, right? Even if your clan ordered you to?"

Maevrin looked startled at the abrupt change of topic. She was so startled that she nearly fell off the wall into the maws of the beasts beneath her. She quickly scrambled back up the wall to a ledge above her. Looking down, she glared at Maelynn, "Don't do that to me! And for your information, if they wanted you dead then they'd want me dead as well. So, no, I wouldn't turn on you, even if they wouldn't want me dead. That didn't make sense, did it? Anyway, I'm loyal to my friends. They'd have to go through me to get to you, and they know that. The only reason why I'm not viewed as a traitor is the fact that I'm actually bringing honor to the clan with our little adventures."

Maelynn put on her best "simpering maiden look" and replied, "That's the sweetest thing you've ever said to us."

Maevrin grinned, "Yeah, I know, thanks ever so much. Now, all you need to do is sleep through the night, secure in the fact that you think I won't kill you…."

Wooky sighed, "Joy, way to lull us into a false sense of security. Anyways, one of us does have to wake up Gwen. I guess I'll surrender to the inevitable, as I do know how to wake her up without getting killed…. Just remember I want this on my tombstone, 'stupidity should hurt, preferably the person that's being stupid, as was I when I woke up Gwen.'" She got up with a groan and sauntered out of the room.

Adam turned to look at the only evident sane person of the group, "Please, please, please tell me they're not always like that, Maelynn."

Maelynn smiled reassuringly at Adam, "They're not always like this…sometimes they're worse…then again sometimes they're better too. They have very mercurial personalities. If it helps any, there are typically three sane people in our group…."

Adam groaned, "Newly weds are never sane."

They both turned to as a blood-curdling scream sounded from down the hall, both resigned to the inevitable strain to their sanity. Maevrin had managed to make her way over to them in time to witness Wooky's flight from the room of doom, her sister (thankfully fully clothed) was hot on her tail. Galdier followed at a more leisurely pace. Wooky grinned as she skidded to a halt behind Prince Adam. Bob immediately went to his mistress' side. The wolf quickly rushed to its favorite person, Gwen. Gwen fell with a yelp, brought down by an enthusiastic puppy. Just like that, sanity, or the semblance thereof was restored. It is amazing what a knock on the head can do.

Adam stared at the odd group and wished that he could run far, far away.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Duncan stared at the group in front of him distrustfully, they were looking entirely too innocent. He'd only known them for a day and already he knew the basic rule of survival around them, _those that look innocent, typically aren't. "_I know you did something," he addressed Maeve, who looked indignant, "but I do not want to know what. Come along, we've got to get you to the Sorceress before anything else happens." He led them off to the road to Grayskull. As he started walking he heard the ninja hiss indignantly, "Why does everyone assume I'm the one that does it all?"

"Because," muttered Maelynn, "you typically are."

Adam rushed over to Duncan's side, "Finally," he whispered, "Sanity incarnate. Thank you for being sane."

Duncan glanced over at his young friend, "It was that bad?"

Adam shuddered, "You have no idea..."


End file.
